Say Dat! 10 Black Words That Went Mainstream

Bootylicious

Say what you want about Beyoncé, but the girl influences pop culture. If you happened to catch her Live at Roseland concert, you heard her explain how she came up with the concept for the song on a long flight to Japan. She says she was listening to Stevie Nicks’ “Edge of Seventeen” and said the guitar riff reminded her of a voluptuous woman shaking something. And what shakes more than the booty?! So from there “Bootylicious” was born. Now, that’s Beyoncé’s version of events. Rob Fusari, who co-wrote the song along with Beyoncé and Falonte Moore says that’s not exactly how things went down. He claims he wanted to build a song with an “Eye of The Tiger” sample but couldn’t find the track, and settled on “Edge of Seventeen” instead. We’ll probably never know the real story but Bey does have a history of embellishing the role she plays in creating her music. Either way, fortunately for all parties involved the song became a massive hit. And the term “bootylicious” became so popular that it too was added to the dictionary in 2004.